Are We Headed for a GPU Price War?

DIY builders have it good these days, especially gamers. Never before has the return on your gaming dollar been so high, where budget and mid-range videocards come capable of cranking out respectable framerates without dropping the visual quality settings down to a blocky mess. Could things get even better?

It's too early to tell, but citing un-named sources from graphics cards players, Digitimes says AMD's profits from its GPU segment is set to drop in the third quarter as Nvidia cranks up the competition.

In addition to its high-end Fermi parts, Nvidia recently launched its GeForce GTX 460 videocard, a $200 GPU we described as "a relatively affordable videocard that delivers great performance with a 1080p display" in our recent preview (see here). And Nvidia isn't finished putting on the competitive pressure. The graphics chip maker is readying its GeForce GTS 455 and 450 GPUs for an August launch, followed by an entry-level GF100 GPU in September.

Meanwhile, AMD is also prepping more DX11 parts, but doesn't have any plans to launch new cards in the third quarter. While it's all speculation at this point, we wouldn't be surprised if price cuts were forthcoming, hence why Digitimes' sources feel AMD's 3Q GPU profits are about to take a downward slide.